Metals may be joined together by welding them with an identical filler metal or brazing them with a different filler metal. High quality welding and brazing techniques require a worker in the art to heat the seam with a torch or electric arc held in one hand while slowly feeding a wire or rod of filler metal with the other hand. The wire filler must be slowly advanced into the melt zone of the weld to supply fill metal as required. If the wire is very thin and flexible, as often is the case for delicate work on thin metals, it is difficult to hold the continuously melting tip at the correct location without holding the wire at a point very close to the hot torch or arc. Heavy gloves are then needed to protect the worker from the heat. These gloves interfere with the dexterity needed to make high quality seams.
To help support and feed the filler wire, it is known to use expensive floor mounted machines that feed wire from a supply spool through a hollow tube. The worker can hold the tube in such a position that the fill wire coming from the end enters the melt zone of the weld operation. Since the tube is larger and stiffer than the wire, it can be held at a location farther removed from the heat source and is thus a bit safer. Such machines include motors to advance the wire which motors are remotely controlled with a switch or the like. Large power driven machines like this lack portability and convenience. Changing to a different size or type of filler wire is tedious and time consuming. And the fixed power driven machines are expensive. The present invention provides a very convenient hand operated wire feeder that accomplishes the same result at a much reduced cost with a great deal more flexibility.